S. Africans Try to Save Penguins From Slick
An air force helicopter battled an Atlantic storm Sunday to pluck endangered Jackass penguins from their Dassen Island breeding ground, hit by oil from an 11-year-old wreck.
Oil dripped from rocks like a thick chocolate sauce and coated the beach up to four inches thick in places. Two pollution-control vessels set off from Cape Town at dawn Sunday to spray dispersant chemicals, but were driven back by a gale and heavy seas.
The island is the second-biggest breeding ground for the penguin, whose numbers have already dropped to 170,000.
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